MarkW

In one of my friends Facebook threads someone said in all seriousness - and I kid you not: "I was going to vote for Brexit because I hate Cameron, but then Boris declared his support so now I'm voting to remain. I just can't stand his hair."

If any of those words stumped you your grasp of English must be on a par with your grasp of Eur... No... Stop it Mark... Behave yourself... Play nicely... oohhh handbags I know what the W stands for now . Sir! Sir! He's being mean to me Sir!

If any of those words stumped you your grasp of English must be on a par with your grasp of Eur... No... Stop it Mark... Behave yourself... Play nicely... I thought you were above personal insults Mr W. True colours starting to show? It's Dr W, if you don't mind.

I think that encapsulates my fears about this referendum more succinctly than anything posted so far. You carry on eating your dictionary If any of those words stumped you your grasp of English must be on a par with your grasp of Eur... No... Stop it Mark... Behave yourself... Play nicely...

Just as we vote on things that will affect them. Given that we have voted in favour of 97% of all EU legislation over the last 6 years, where precisely do you see the problem? Out. I think that encapsulates my fears about this referendum more succinctly than anything posted so far.

Only if it complies with 2009/48/EC (the Toys Safety Directive) Section 2.1 "Colouring and painting articles."

Just as we vote on things that will affect them. Given that we have voted in favour of 97% of all EU legislation over the last 6 years, where precisely do you see the problem?

A FEW FACTS FOR THOSE WHO PERSIST IN TROTTING OUT THE STANDARD BREXIT TRIPE ABOUT RULES BEING FORCED ON US BY UNELECTED EUROPEAN BUREAUCRATS: First, while the EU Commission can and does propose EU legislation, it has no vote on it. Only the directly elected MEPs and the Council can accept or reject the proposed legislation. The Council is made up of elected representatives of the 28 national governments. So the voting is all done by people who have been elected. Secondly, because there is no EU government as such, the EU works as much as possible on the basis of consensus. What this means in practice is that, before putting forward proposed legislation for MEPs and the Council to vote on, the Commission spends a great deal of time consulting each of the 28 member governments, which gives each of the member countries an opportunity to influence the legislation being proposed. Far from having EU legislation foisted upon us, we (and every other EU member state) are fully involved in the process of creating it right from the start. This might explain why, over the last 6 years, the UK has agreed with 97% of all EU legislation passed. Thirdly, for all areas of major significance – new members, for example, or changes to membership arrangements; trade deals; new or modified treaties – the EU can only act if the action is approved by the EU Parliament, the Council AND each of the 28 national governments. That’s not just some govt representative in Brussels: it means those plans have to be approved (or rejected) in our Houses of Parliament. Several member states have even opted to make their approval of such major policy areas subject to a national referendum. It only takes one national government to reject the proposed policy for the whole thing to fall through. Fourthly, the EU only legislates in policy areas that have been either wholly or partially delegated to it by the member states. There is also a fundamental principle built into the EU (and being emphasised more and more in recent months and years) that decisions should be taken locally wherever possible and at EU level only where necessary for greater transnational effectiveness. The key policy areas affecting our day-to-day lives – housing, welfare, health, defence and foreign policy – are all entirely in our own hands. Finally, even if we vote to leave the EU, our laws will still not be set entirely by elected representatives in our own parliament. When did any of us last elect anyone to the House of Lords? When did we elect our Head of State? Nor did we directly elect the Cabinet – each individual member of the Cabinet was elected as an MP, but was then appointed to a government position by the Prime Minister. None of us had a say in Jeremy Hunt becoming Secretary of State for Health, for example (and I daresay most of us would choose to kick him out if we could). And we certainly don’t get to elect or even influence the choice of Permanent Secretaries in the Civil Service. What’s more, thanks to our First Past the Post electoral system, not even the House of Commons genuinely reflects the actual numbers of votes cast for any given Party. The European Parliament, being elected on the basis of Proportional Representation, is a much fairer and more democratic reflection of the votes cast by the citizens of the EU. IF YOU STILL DON'T GET IT YOU'RE EITHER NOT VERY BRIGHT, RACIST, OR POSSIBLY BOTH.

EU regulations cripple british farming How so?

It's not scaremongering just because they don't like it. If you want to trade with Europe you have to accept free movement of people, and you still have to pay. Those are the facts. That's how it is for Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Canada. If you are voting 'Out' because you believe we won't have to pay or accept free movement of people any more, you are wasting your vote.

Most of them either seem to be desperately looking for some evidence to support their desire to vote out, which is completely arse-about-face, or they couldn't care less about evidence because they know instinctively that we're better than funny-smelling foreigners.

Go for a walk up your high street where you live Monday , ask the first ten people you see if they are in or out , base your vote on the answers you get , if you can't get to it any other way......... It will be out . Then ask them if they have even the most rudimentary understanding of how Europe actually works, and decide if their opinion is worth a damn.

If you're still unclear what Brexit would and would not mean, this is worth looking at: http://www.squareonelaw.com/announcements/eu-referendum-know-the-facts/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Why would we want to? We might find that we preferred it when we had a say in EU policy, rather just having to accept it the way Norway, Iceland and Switzerland do.

Did you ever see The Andromeda Strain, where the entrance to the underground Wildfire Lab was via a secret elevator in a store room? I wonder if I could do that in my understairs cupboard...

I nearly posted that EAB but I went for the OTT plan instead. It's only the garden that's OTT - I'm keeping the multi-level layout and swimming pool!

That's a bit OTT to be honest: who needs four trees in their garden?

Thanks guys. A back-of-an-envelope calculation suggests it'll be around £75k to add a substantial size basement, but there's no way to get a comparable increase in usable space for the same money by moving around here. Ours is just a run-of-the-mill Victorian mid-terrace, but it has properly high ceilings, massive windows and loads of light, all of which we love. The only way to get a similar increase in floor space as the basement build would be to move into a modern house which has none of those things, and which would cost more than the value of our house plus the conversion. A basement would also allow us to move the washer, dryer and a load of storage out of the room adjoining the kitchen and then knock through and do a proper kitchen re-fit, which would be nice. If we do get a basement done, my wife has already given it a name: The Fritzl Suite.

Bit of an odd one this, but has anyone ever had a basement room added to their house? Rough estimates suggest that for a Victorian mid-terrace like ours it would cost about £3k per square metre fully fitted out, which is considerably cheaper than moving to something a bit bigger here in posh old Harrogate. We're just kicking the idea round at the moment and looking for info, but don't know anyone who's had it done.

I'm an entomologist, and one of my friends is a tabloid journalist. One night in the pub I mentioned in passing that we'd found some false widow spiders in my brothers shed, and that the species had been resident in the UK for well over 100 years. A couple of days later there was a massively overblown headline in his paper about deadly black-widow relatives invading the UK.

Not sure if this has been posted already, but thought it might make you laugh: http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2015/04/02/man-tries-burn-eu-flag-wont-burn-due-eu-fire-safety-rules/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;